k.d. lang

Invincible Summer

Warner Bros.

She's never really seemed like the beach-going type, but since her move to California, k.d. lang is suddenly the windswept woman.

Far from the farmlands of her native Canada, lang is singing about the surf, the sand, and summer love on her latest album. And while Invincible Summer isn't exactly the soundtrack for some beach blanket romance movie, it definitely has the feel of ocean breezes running right through the heart of it.

Inspired by the Albert Camus quote "In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me lay an invincible summer," lang brings elegance, grace, and a typically wondrous vocal splendor to the 11-song set. She remains one of the finest singers of this era, a fact she makes clear from the opening seconds of the dusky opener, "The Consequences of Falling," through the dreamy, Orbison-esque "Love's Great Ocean," to the lusty tale of infatuation, "Curiosity."

The disc's centerpiece is the lead single "Summerfling," a twang-tinged, sweetly orchestrated and deliciously retro throwback to early '60s innocence, complete with lines about "the smell of Sunday in our hair, we ran on the beach with Kennedy flair."

With its seamless flow and a series of strong songs, Invincible Summer emerges as one of lang's most even, and most accessible efforts in several years.